


Every Day I'm Learning

by AmandaMelody



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Friendship, Grantaire & Éponine Thénardier Friendship, Heartbreak, Hurt/Comfort, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 15:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5503268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmandaMelody/pseuds/AmandaMelody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eponine and Grantaire had one certain thing in common: their suffering with unrequited love. Perhaps that's what drew them towards each other. </p><p>Oneshot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Day I'm Learning

Eponine and Grantaire had been sharing an apartment for nearly six months now. It was where they sat together on the couch to watch old-timey melodramas under a hideous blanket Jehan had knitted them. It was where they shared buckets upon buckets of ice cream in the middle of the night (they liked to buy the cookies and cream kind). They always ate straight from the tub. They shared everything; inside jokes, dreams, beanie hats.

And they shared nights sitting out on their balcony gazing up at the midnight stars, wide awake. Although the apartment itself was pretty shoddy, you could say the view was worth a million bucks. Their special spot overlooked everything and stopped at the distant horizon, with the mountaintops in clear view. 

Tonight Grantaire sat out there alone, his eyes intently studying the glimmering night sky, hoping that Eponine hadn't gotten into trouble with Montparnasse again. When he heard a violent slam of their apartment door and a stream of curses, he knew she was home. 

"Where've you been?" Grantaire said casually, after she sat down next to him.

"Marius...stupid...date..." she nearly whispered, with other inaudible muttering noises in between. Eponine's eyes averted and she was blinking too much; that's when Grantaire knew something was wrong.

Eponine was a tough girl. People all over the neighborhood called her the daughter of a wolf. Physical pain seemed to do nothing to her. She once stepped on a nail while helping Feuilly build a birdhouse and she didn't shed a tear. But when it came to Marius, she was a sensitive, lovestruck young girl again. When it came to him, Eponine was completely vulnerable. Marius was the Wolf Daughter's single weakness, and she hated it. 

"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine," she said helplessly, but she already knew that lying would do nothing. Grantaire knew her too well. Eponine turned her face away from him in shame. 

Grantaire cupped her face with his hands and turned her towards him. They looked directly into each other's pleading eyes now. Eponine looked desperate, and tears began to blur her vision. "Come on, 'Ponine," Grantaire sighed. He wasn't being his typical, sarcastic self. He was gentle now, a side he only showed to Eponine.

Eponine never cried. Yet the Wolf Daughter's tears fell. 

"I was with Marius today before his date with Cosette," she wept. "He...he was just talking about how great she was the whole time, and...I don't know what to think anymore. I want to hate him, and I...I want to hate Cosette too, but-" she buried her head in her knees. Grantaire put an arm around her and squeezed her tight.

"I saw them kiss today," Eponine continued. "I just watched from afar, silently...I couldn't do anything..." she cried.

Grantaire knew. Eponine wasn't typically a passive girl; if she saw someone getting assaulted in the streets, she'd drop everything and the mugger would be beaten to a pulp in a matter of minutes. But when it came to Marius and Cosette, all Eponine was capable of was watching. She was suddenly helpless; only able to watch quietly with restrained pain as the two slowly fell deeper in love. While Eponine slowly broke apart at the same time. 

Grantaire pulled Eponine close to him and they held each other firmly. All they had were each other, after all. Eponine buried her face into Grantaire and he kissed her forehead and let his green sweatshirt soak up her tears.

"I'm so weak," Eponine said.

"No," Grantaire replied. "You're just being human."

The two looked up at the stars. They were bright as ever tonight.

After a while of comfortable silence, Eponine finally spoke.

"I don't know why I even bother with that dork Marius anymore if every moment I spend with him just makes me hurt," she ranted. She looked at Grantaire. "R, How do _you_ put up with it every day?"

Grantaire stiffened. A single face flashed in his mind. 

 

_"Grantaire, I've had enough of your nonsense. You contribute nothing to our group and you're just an overall disruption. You truly don't care for social justice, I can tell. Leave here and never come back."_

Grantaire remembers his last meeting at the Musain too well. He remembers the mistake he had made, surpassing Enjolras's limits. Testing his patience. He vividly remembers the pure outrage that ensued. And that desperate, dreary time he spent at the bar later that same night. 

Every moment he spends with Enjolras fills him with a dull aching. Even when he isn't with Enjolras, a constant pain consumes him that doesn't go away no matter how long he tries to sleep it off. Grantaire knows how Eponine feels. 

 

Finally, Grantaire answers. "I...I don't know," he whimpers, weakly.

They say no more words. Grantaire knows that both he and Eponine aren't sure how they put up with their pining. They don't completely know how they handle the same pain day after day. All he knows is that the two of them are a confused mess. 

But nevertheless, they completed one another, and they were content living in confused harmony. Together.

Yes, as long as they had each other, their pain was bearable. They filled each other's emptiness and continued to live every day. They made each other's lives still worth living. 

Eponine and Grantaire sat there for what seemed like forever and ever and ever, without keeping track of the time. For the first time, they looked off into the distance instead of up at the stars.

In the darkness, the trees were full of starlight. 

 


End file.
